My Favorite Buildings: North Pearl Continued
I could not find any information about this building. It is not in the Buffalo architecture guide book, It is not listed on Buffalo as an Architectural Museum, and I could find no useful links using Google. Yet here sits this gorgeous building at a prominent location - what gives? The fact that this building is so little known speaks volumes about how extensive the scope of high quality buildings in Buffalo is.
If I were to guess, I would say that this church was designed by Buffalo architect Green and Wicks. The rich use of color, wonderfully balanced composition, and perfect classical detailing are all hallmarks of that talented design firm. The best features, or many delights, on this building are the incredible stained glass windows punching through the beautiful texture of the golden Roman brick walls. This church is unusual in that it is designed in an auditorium style. Being a protestant congregation, the Baptists often shunned the more common and ceremonial cross shaped church plans favored by Catholics. Because of this you might pass this building without realizing that it is a church. I will try to get a peek inside in the near future. Stay tuned for more on the North Pearl area and hopefully more on this building as well.
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onestarmartin
walk by this building daily, truly beautiful, could use a good cleaning and a different sign though!
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RaChaCha
Steel, not to worry: the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and their executive director (and architectural webmaster extraordinare) Chuck LaChiusa have got you covered. They recently undertook a very worthwhile project to digitize James Napora's exhaustively researched and indispensable reference on Buffalo churches titled "Houses of Worship: A Guide to the Religious Architecture of Buffalo, NY".
The church in you article - which is indeed a stunning building - is mentioned in this link: http://www.landmark-niagara.org/how/2/2.6/first.html.
These are great articles highlighting Buffalo's lesser-known gems.
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RaChaCha
Steel, not to worry: the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and their executive director (and architectural webmaster extraordinare) Chuck LaChiusa have got you covered. They recently undertook a very worthwhile project to digitize James Napora's exhaustively researched and indispensable reference on Buffalo churches titled "Houses of Worship: A Guide to the Religious Architecture of Buffalo, NY".
The church in you article - which is indeed a stunning building - is mentioned in this link: http://www.landmark-niagara.org/how/2/2.6/first.html.
These are great articles highlighting Buffalo's lesser-known gems.
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STEEL
So my guess was wrong. The building architect was Robert A Wallace. Thanks for the link RaChaCha.
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fredrico
I was able to go in this church last summer when they had a Rummage Sale. I noted at that time how stunning the archetechural features of the church were and gave the people present credit in that they seemed to be trying to maintain the original features. They responded that they were trying to restore it one room at a time "as often as financial circumstances allowed".
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RaChaCha
Fredrico, great note. If the church gets itself register listed - the preservation groups can assist with that - they can qualify for specific funding for rehab work under the "Sacred Sites" grant program. I'd think that if they do that, and apply, they'd rank high for funding not just due to the outstanding architecture of the church, but the fact that they're actively trying to be good stewards of the building.
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chris69
I love that building also but it would have been nice to include some interior shots as well.
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fredrico
Rachacha,
I did mention to the people at the church that there are programs and grants ( I didn't know the names of the programs available) that they could apply for and they said that they would look into it.
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